The event arrived on the heels of the controversial League of the South's White Lives Matter rally set for Saturday on the Murfreesboro and Shelbyville public squares.

"We're an interfaith fellowship so ... activities like the love your neighbor potluck and Murfreesboro Loves is really in the spirit of what we believe and we want to be here and support it as much as we can," said Allie Becker, who was working on button badges alongside fellow members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Murfreesboro members.

While Becker and a group from UUFM colored messages that will be used to give out during a peaceful counter-protest by #MurfreesboroLoves at the park from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, other groups made picket signs with peaceful messages like "No room for hate" and "God Loves Everyone."

The first picnic was held in 2015 after a hate group blasted social media encouraging people to protest at the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. So the Murfreesboro Cold Patrol and Murfreesboro Muslim Youth banded together to host the inaugural event.

As children darted around the field playing soccer and tossing football, a group of women cooked handmade flat bread on a grill while the crowd sampled from a food buffet table that stretched the entire length of the pavilion

Nothing brings people together like a meal, said Abdou Kattih, director of the Murfreesboro Muslim Youth.

"We believe it brings people together that don't know each other that well. We believe more knowledge is power and it leads to more peace," said Kattih, who co-organizes the event with Murfreesboro Cold Patrol co-founder Jason Bennett. "The community here can show the United States that we can bring peace in a much more vocal way, rather than hate. That's the whole idea."

At the Love Your Neighbor Picnic on Oct. 22, 2017, from left, Nada Alzoubi, Sarrah Omer and Rashed Alzoubi make posters in preparation to counter the hate messages being brought Oct. 28 by the League of the South White Lives Matter.(Photo: Nancy DeGennaro/USA Today Network-Tennessee)

Jennifer Vannoy said she has been impressed with the way the movement has grown over the past two years in the "face of adversity."

"It's really incredible the way Murfreesboro keeps showing up in love. The people here join hands, they join hearts and they learn and grow from each other. Because every time hate tries to show its face in Murfreesboro, we rise up and we get better every single time," Vannoy said.

Reach reporter Nancy De Gennaro at 615-278-5148 or degennaro@dnj.com, and follow her on Twitter @NanDeGennaro.